As you move up, you will find the detail in engine noise become greater. SOUND: Early on in Forza 4, when players are driving their way to their dream cars, the rumble of the engines is beefed up a tad, and a Ford Ka can sound a little faster than it actually is. It is a great achievement by Turn 10, and if this is what the studio can do with ageing hardware, we are in for a real treat in the next three or four years. This is displayed throughout the whole game, where every track has been given that extra polish, and players will find themselves using photo mode more than ever before, just to capture the serenity - or madness, depending on your driving style - of the tracks and races. There isn’t much on the Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 for that matter, which looks as good as Forza 4. Players can examine a select amount of vehicles in exquisite detail, learning along the way.įorza 4’s graphics grab the player and thrust them right into the midst of the race.
It is however, a full feature of Forza 4 and if nothing else, it is a truly beautiful thing. Autovista can feel like a tech demo at times, a concept of what is to come in the future. This is never more evident than in Autovista, a new interactive mode for Forza 4. From the game’s poster child – the Ferrari 458 – right down to the Volkswagen Fox, they have been cared for during their development so much, you would think that this game was being bankrolled by a conglomerate of every vehicle manufacturer present.
The cars have also been given a makeover for Forza 4. There is a lack of weather and nighttime races that will leave a small hole for some, but once the awe-inspiring tracks and cars are taken in by the player at 60 frames per second, this small gripe will soon be forgotten. The lighting here feels so good, I almost put my hand on my brow to block out the sun on more than one occasion. All of this happens of course, with the sun beating down on the track, either in the early morning or evening sun, sometimes causing you to lose your vision momentarily. As you drive down the mountain roads, the textures and environment change from one glorious surrounding to another. Fujimi Kaido in Japan has a mix of forests, the snowy Mount Fuji and a river which runs alongside parts of the 10.2 mile full circuit. Rally Di Positano in the coastal town of Amalfi, Italy, is awash with amazing detail, be it the cobbled streets with the gorgeous buildings, to the sea and the horizon. Each racetrack is shown in immense detail. The new Image-Based Lighting (IBL) on display in Forza 4 has brought not just tracks, but whole environments to life. GRAPHICS: You would think that with a console as mature as the Xbox 360, making significant graphical improvements would be like getting blood out of a stone, right? Not quite - well not for the geniuses at Turn 10, anyway.
What could Turn 10 possibly add to the series to cement its place as not only the best game in its class, but the flagship of a genre on the current generation of consoles? Would Forza Motorsport 4 just be a 3.5? Something to keep the fans happy while Turn 10 placed its efforts on the next generation of Xbox perhaps? It surpassed the previous iterations in almost every way - it really had it all. Many thought that Forza Motorsport 3 (released in 2009) was the pinnacle of the racing game genre. There’s no doubting that Forza Motorsport was one of the best games available on the original Xbox, and when Turn 10 made the transition to Xbox 360 with its 2007 effort, Forza Motorsport 2, it was again a great title which pushed forward the customisation and depth the previous games had, along with better graphics. It was a compelling effort, with realistic racing, damage and a vast library of vehicles only previously seen in Sony’s Gran Turismo franchise. Forza Motorsport first released on the Xbox back in 2005.